ZPD

After 15 hours of careful time-tracking of how students' time was actually spent during the school days of the first semester, I found that there had been an average of 4 hours a day for teaching/learning interactions. However, because these four hours were never continuous, it felt like much less time. As a teacher, I am frustrated that there is not more uninterrupted time, an essential condition for authentic learning by Vygotsky, Gatto, and Montessori. Continue reading →

“How Learning Occurs” according to constructivist learning theorist Vygotsky, who described the “zone of proximal development (ZPD)”***

Zone of Proximal Development, an idea developed by Vygotsky over one hundred years ago, falls within a socio-cultural context and seeks to define the process through which students effectively learn in cooperation with a teacher. A student’s Zone of Proximal Development, or ZPD, is defined as the student’s range of ability with and without assistance from a teacher or a more capable peer. On one end of the range is the student’s ability level without assistance. On the other end of… Continue reading →